Awareness…

Society has been discovering, over the past thirty years, the extent of catastrophes for which it is solely responsible: oil slicks, industrial pollution, mass intoxication, etc. Certain disasters, which received important media coverage at the time of their occurrence, hide other issues whose effects carry longer, yet irreversible, consequences: the hole in the ozone layer, acid rain, desertification, greenhouse effect, deforestation, etc.Although the first accidents (mainly coal mining) mainly affected labourers, the scope of current accidents has now become much wider. Nuclear catastrophes (e.g. Chernobyl), wrecked oil tankers (between 10 000 and 200 000 tonnes spilt for each accident), chemical disasters (e.g. Bhopal and AZF), sanitary catastrophes (e.g. asbestos, mad cow disease) - the facts are quite real and their consequences often severe.Moreover, mankind cannot keep on accumulating waste and using up non-renewable natural resources forever. Finally, the social dimension shows that the huge gap in wealth, that separates different populations around the world, is still increasing (cf. section on the state of our world).… and scepticism
Like any concept, the principle of sustainable development has its critics. Although the idea of "possible" sustainable development is gaining ground, opposition remains. This issue is highly influenced by personal values and it is not our purpose to make any kind of judgement; rather we aim to mention some of the obstacles to what appears to be an issue carrying very high stakes.

Faith in progress :

Inherited from the period of Enlightenment, the belief that progress will bring a solution is still deep-rooted. Considering the social, ecological and economic arguments presented by the holders of sustainable development to be alarmist, part of the population firmly believes in progress. The argument is that Mankind has always been capable of finding solutions to adapt to the environment, so there's no reason to panic. When the need will become important enough, society (via the market) will mobilise all its resources to face the challenge. "When we run out of oil, we'll necessarily find another source for our energy because it will then be a vital issue".

Belief in a form of "Darwinism"

"The dinosaurs are extinct, so what?" Ecological, cultural, and sociological upheavals have always existed - causing the extinction of some species, modifying life conditions, forcing populations to evolve, natural selection is a law of nature - sometimes called "cynical", the "Darwinians" believe that the world evolves and there are necessarily losers in the process.

Belief in "degrowth"

To date, the holders of sustainable development have clearly chosen the side of development.  Given that Earth is by nature a closed and limited space, some researchers have considered the possibility for sustainable “degrowth”, which doesn’t seem to fit in well with the concepts of market and growth. The "zero growth" argument, launched by the Club of Rome in 1972, was the starting point of the concept of sustainable development ( cf. history).

"Unreliable" sources

For a specific incident, different observers often present contradicting figures. When macroeconomic issues are involved, and when many criteria need to be taken into account, the task is even more complex. For "identifiable" economic data, the criteria retained influences the final results. Therefore, although they are commonly used, comparisons and rankings are not highly reliable. GDP for instance is extensively used by politicians and economists to review the health of the countries. Yet, it is inherently limited as it does not take into account self-consumption, voluntary work, non-declared work, public and private assets, and services provided by public service; but does include doubtful debts, "bad" factors, etc. (see the excellent intermediate report of the mission on "New factors of wealth" published by the State Secretary for Solidarity and Economics, Patrick Viveret).In parallel to these beliefs, there are many internal issues pertaining to the methods of application (not on the principle of a balance between economy/social/environment aspects). As sustainable development, by nature, lies at a crossroads of these three issues, each has to define its own priorities for action.